I headed a couple of stops down the line to Tokyo station. Between there and the 10min walk to the Imperial Palace I managed to hook up with a couple of Aussies who were in town for day before heading off to Mexico. Luckily one of them spoke Japanese! She found out the palace is shut Mondays and Tuesdays but there was a mildly photographic point a bit further up with a couple of bridges and a temple in the background.
We walked down to Ginza afterwards which is the Knightsbridge of Tokyo. A bit snobby, very expensive but chic and nice to look at. I wasnft planning on heading into this part of town but Ifm glad they wanted to. I parted with my Aussie chums in the Sony Building as they had to go and get their flight.
The Sony building is the Japan I came to see! All High-tech, shaped and polished glass and wood. Even the toilets looked like they were designed by the same guy who did the Playstation!! They had the new Aibo (Robotic Dog) on show, which sang or said eBANZAIf when it was happy (it got happy when you shook its hand or played ball with it!)
They had all the latest VAIO and WEGA stuff set up in mock living rooms with big comfy chairs (including a crystal clear 60h Plasma screen!!). They were demo-ing SACD in an auditorium and on headphones (very impressive.) They had the best combo machine Ifve ever seen (below). It does CD/DVD/MD/MP3, has a PC built into the back and a fold up keyboard on the front and has space for memory sticks and just about any other gadget you fancy plugging in!!
I came back about 1730, watched some manga cartoons and the news which I couldn't understand (has George Bush's new missle defence system finally hit something at last?? Something fired from Columbia?) then figured I'd get an hour or sofs kip and head back out to see the Neon night of Tokyo.
Bloody jet lag. Woke up at midnight.
As the hotel locks its doors at 0100 I thought forget it. I tossed and turned on my Tatami (that Ifve doubled over to make it more like a matress) then figured Ifd come down and write this before going back up.
GfNight.